1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation image capturing system including a radiation detecting cassette housing therein a radiation conversion panel for detecting a radiation that has passed through a subject and converting the detected radiation into radiation image information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, there have widely been used radiation image capturing apparatus which apply a radiation to a subject and guide the radiation that has passed through the subject to a radiation conversion panel, which captures a radiation image from the radiation. Known forms of the radiation conversion panel include a conventional radiation film for recording a radiation image by way of exposure, and a stimulable phosphor panel for storing a radiation energy representing a radiation image in a phosphor and reproducing the radiation image as stimulated light by applying stimulating light to the phosphor. The radiation film with the recorded radiation image is supplied to a developing device to develop the radiation image, or the stimulable phosphor panel is supplied to a reading device in order to read the radiation image as a visible image.
In the operating room or the like, it is necessary to read recorded radiation images immediately from the radiation conversion panel after the radiation image has been captured, for the purpose of quickly and appropriately treating the patient. As a radiation conversion panel that meets such a requirement, there has been developed a radiation detector having a solid-state detector for converting radiation directly into electric signals or for converting radiation into visible light with a scintillator and then converting the visible light into electric signals, so as to read the detected radiation image.
Radiation image capturing systems which incorporate a radiation detecting cassette housing such a radiation conversion panel therein employ subject ID information for identifying a patient as a subject to capture a radiation image and manage radiation image information (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-172783 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-245828).
Specifically, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-172783 discloses that identification information about the capture of radiation images including subject ID information is stored in advance in a memory in a radiation detecting cassette, and each time a radiation image is captured, the identification information about a next subject to be imaged is displayed on a display device for efficiently capturing the radiation images of the subjects.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-245828 discloses that subject ID information on an ID tag applied to a portion of the body of a patient is read by a portable medical terminal and transmitted to a medical facility computer.
The dose of a radiation that is applied from a radiation source through a subject to a radiation detecting cassette for capturing a radiation image of the subject differs from subject to subject. Specifically, since each subject needs to be irradiated with an optimum radiation dose for the subject, the radiation dose has to be managed or adjusted for each patient. According to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-172783 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-245828, however, as the radiation dose is not managed or adjusted for each patient, each patient cannot be irradiated with an optimum radiation dose for the subject when capturing the radiation image of the patient.